Canned Art: Sun King Brewing Canvitational Preview
Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on defunct, Central Indiana arts website Sky Blue Window on September 18, 2014. Some content, style, and formatting may differ from the original version.
Saturday a party will descend on Georgia Street. Beers will be consumed. Good times will inevitably be had. Downtown Indianapolis will be on display for an excited group of out-of-towners. No, it’s not the Super Bowl in September. The second annual CANvitational, hosted by Sun King Brewing will take place.
“Clay wanted to do this so that it would give us a chance to invite some of our friends to come and play, and really highlight Indianapolis and Indiana as a craft beer state,” Director of Promotions and Sponsorships Beth Belange says of Sun King cofounder Clay Robinson.
Courtesy of Sun King
The CANvitational will bring at least 40 breweries from all over the country to Indy for a celebration of craft beer and the aluminum vessels that house it. Previously, cans served as the preferred vehicle for cheap, mass-produced domestic beer, until the craft beer explosion of the last half-decade. “It was sort of a perfect storm of people slowly coming around to the idea of a can. Mobile canning came around. The canning-line manufacturers produced better, cheaper, smaller canning lines. All that stuff just happened all at once. With 2,000 breweries in the country and a lot of craft beer fans, it was kind of the perfect amalgamation,” says Russ Phillips, author of Canned!: Artwork of the Modern American Beer Can and the writer behind craftcans.com.
“We were actually the 56th American craft brewery to can when we started five years ago,” Belange says. “Now, there’s upwards of 500 American craft breweries that are canning.”
As one might guess, this influx has fostered a boom of creativity in the packaging and design of cans as independent brewers attempt to carve out an identity in a growing market. “I think cans, over the years, have really changed. When canning first started, you saw a lot of cans with the same logo on both sides,” Phillips says. “There are so many great designs now. Some of this stuff is so creative and so ridiculous at times that it’s almost hard to pass up.”
Courtesy of Sun King
With this in mind, Sun King partnered with Arts Council of Indianapolis to further the CANvitational’s focus on the artistry behind the can for its second year. During Friday’s brewer’s reception in Indianapolis Artsgarden, local artists will showcase works aimed at transforming the can designs from several of the festival’s participating breweries. Tickets to the event, dubbed CAN’d ART were available for a standalone price of $10 or $5 with a ticket to the CANvitational. (Though just prior to posting this article, Sky Blue Window learned this event is now sold out.)
“There’s not a whole lot that I don’t like about what I do. I’m able to be creative. I’m able to explore different things, try different things,” Sun King art director Shane Brown confesses. “It’s like I always tell everybody, I’ve got the perfect job. I drink and draw for a living, you know? Come on dude [he laughs].”
Brown’s creative involvement with Sun King began at the ground level when Robinson approached him to design the company’s logo. Since then, he has overseen the design of nearly all of Sun King’s can line and branding of everything from truck wraps to T-shirts. With more than 8 million cans sold to date, Brown’s work has been seen by as many people as any Hoosier artist in the past five years.
“It’s pretty nuts. It really is,” Brown says. “We were in Colorado when we went over there to do the [Ball Corp.] cans for Fistful of Hops. Even there, Clay would introduce me as his in-house artist. They were all like, ‘I love your designs!’ and I was like, ‘Whoa, hold on! This is Colorado for God’s sake, and you’re digging my stuff here?’ That’s killer, you know?”
Courtesy of Sun King
Phillips believes beer can design proves much more complex than the process for bottling. “With a bottle, you’ve obviously got a label, but you’ve also got a six-pack holder, which gives you a peripheral billboard to put artwork on. For the most part with cans, the can itself is your billboard,” he says. “The biggest limitation with cans is the way the printing is done. That kind of printing requires the artist to use a set number of colors … You can’t just take a bottle label, put it on a can, and expect it to work out exactly the same. So, there’s actually quite a bit of talent that goes into making something similar or just coming up with something from scratch that uses a limited number of colors. Some of it is pretty amazing.”
For his part, Brown loves the challenge. “I’m an artist, so if I’m not creating or doing something, then I’m going to get bored and go crazy,” he says. “Even on my off time, I’m doing chalkboards at different bars. This weekend I did a big piece for ORANJE. I’ve got to be creating and constantly evolving, otherwise I’m not happy.”
In addition to the artistic offerings at CANvitational, Sun King will debut a collaborative can with Illinois’ Solemn Oath Brewery. It’s the first foray into canning for the brewery, which focuses on Belgian-style beers. For CANvitational Sun King and Solemn Oath partnered on a session IPA, which the duo is calling “30 Minute Coma.” This focus on collaboration is a carryover from the inaugural event, when Sun King partnered with Three Floyds on its Three Kings Pale Ale.
Written by Rob Peoni
Curating songs from the outside in: Kyle Long on TedxIndianapolis
Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on defunct, Central Indiana arts website Sky Blue Window on October 16, 2014. Some content, style and formatting may differ from the original version.
Like most people attempting to earn a living within Indy’s music scene, Kyle Long wears a lot of hats. He is the cofounder of Cultural Cannibals with his partner Artur Silva. He pens a weekly column and hosts a radio show entitled “A Cultural Manifesto” at NUVO and WFYI, respectively. He’s the music consultant at Eskenazi Health’s Marianne Tobias Music Program. After next week, Long will add Music Curator of TEDxIndianapolis to his lengthy list of job titles.
To all of these positions, Long brings a perspective faced outward. “Whatever I do, whether it’s writing my column for NUVO or my deejay sets, it’s all about bringing what’s perceived as an outside musical tradition into the world of mainstream entertainment in this city,” Long says. This focus made him a perfect fit for TEDxIndianapolis’ 2014 theme of “Get Outside In.” Below, discover the eclectic lineup of musical guests, who will perform at Hilbert Circle Theatre on Oct. 21 and learn why Long chooses to hang his many hats in Indy.
Sky Blue Window: So, how did you get involved in TEDxIndianapolis this year?
Kyle Long: That goes back to last year, where they asked me to deejay throughout the day during the intermissions. I did some collaborations last year as well, the most interesting of which was a collaboration with Oreo Jones and Time For Three, where we blended all of our unique abilities together for a cool little performance. I think they wanted to incorporate me last year, because what I do here in the community is pretty unique, and it didn’t necessarily make sense for me to do a talk. I’m not very fond of public speaking, and I’m probably terrible at it. So, they threw in the idea of having me deejay throughout the day and have some input on the musical performances. That led to a more substantial role this year. It’s a title that gets thrown on me a lot, which is “music curator.” It sounds really pretentious [he laughs], but I like it and it’s a cool, fun title to have.
SBW: How did you incorporate TEDxIndianapolis’ theme “Get Outside In” into the musical lineup this year?
KL: I think the organizers, particularly Anne Laker, who is a great member of the Big Car team, felt like the theme of “Get Outside In” really aligned with my work. Whatever I do, whether it’s writing my column for NUVO or my deejay sets, it’s all about bringing what’s perceived as an outside musical tradition into the world of mainstream entertainment in this city. So, she made that connection and reached out to me, and I immediately recognized there was some substantial connection between [TEDx and] what I do in the scene.
Beyond that, I’m always looking for any opportunity to use whatever voice that somebody was generous enough to give me to spotlight artists who I think are doing really important things, but … aren’t getting the attention they deserve. We have a lot of amazing artists on this lineup who have achieved a lot outside of Indiana. Even though they might have a substantial base here, they might not have been given, in my opinion, the exposure they deserve.
SBW: Did TEDx give you carte blanche in terms of your musical curation this year, or did they offer input?
KL: It was definitely equal input, but they certainly gave me freedom to put my own spin on it. That’s what is great about working with Big Car; they focus on creativity. There’s nothing that’s going to turn them off in terms of being too experimental or this is going to freak people out — that’s what they want. They want to see those types of performers come in. So, yeah, I think we had an equal back-and-forth. They made some recommendations, and I made some.
LeeAnn Mueller / Courtesy of Stuart Hyatt
SBW: How does Stuart Hyatt fit in with the musical lineup?
KL: Stuart Hyatt is a Hoosier multi-disciplinary artist. He recently did a project, which you may have heard about, where he made a sound map of Washington Street. He traveled the entire distance of Washington Street, east and west, making field recordings of people he encountered. Then he took those recordings and created a musical composition out of them, which he called The National Road under the name Field Works. This is another interpretation of approaching music with this Outside-In concept. He traveled this road and traveled the Marion County region from the outskirts into downtown and back to the outskirts. And he developed this composition based on his experience. He’s going to present some sort of experimental version. I’m not sure exactly how it’s going to shape up, but he’s going to collaborate with Time for Three and present some sort of interpretation of that work at TEDx. So, that’s going to be really exciting to see how he puts it together.
SBW: Can you tell us about the balance of musicians from outside of Indiana and local acts who you have booked for this event?
KL: The Sweet Poison Victim performance probably speaks best to that. They’re probably my favorite local rock band. I go to all of their shows, and am just a huge fan of theirs. You have this group who’s made up of musicians from all sorts of backgrounds, from hardcore bands to guys who play Latin music. The central figure in the band is Kwesi Brown, who grew up in Ghana and came to the United States to get a PhD in Ethnomusicology from IUPUI. So that band sort of personifies this balance between people from outside traditions here and people who grew up Hoosiers and are doing traditional sorts of Indiana music.
For their performance, they’re going to be collaborating with an amazing woman here in the community named Pam Blevins Hinkle … She’s very involved in music improvisation. She goes into women’s prison and teaches music improvisation to the women. She plays so many instruments and is one of the most creative people here in the music scene. At the introduction of Sweet Poison’s performance, she’s going to be doing a collaborative improvisational piece. Again, that’s another situation like Stuart Hyatt with Time For Three. We don’t know what it’s going to look like. We don’t know if they’ve really worked it out. It’s just very free-flowing and loose, and they’re going to come out and do something in front of 1,500 people that may be spectacular or everybody may be scratching their heads. That’s part of the fun of this event is the open-mindedness of everyone involved.
Polina Osherov / Courtesy of Sweet Poison Victim
SBW: Sweet Poison Victim, Salaam, and Jefferson St. Parade Band are home-grown reflections of your world music interests. Can you talk a bit about Indiana’s ability to foster local projects with such a panoramic world view?
KL: Jefferson St. Parade Band is a really interesting group. It’s a marching band, essentially. Ben Fowler, who’s the leader of the group, has created a very diverse repertoire for them. They play some Mexican cumbia stuff. They play some Eastern European music that reflects the Roman or gypsy culture. They’re just loud and they make a lot of noise, and it’s sort of like a junkyard band that’s playing all of this really incredible music. When you see them live, they’re sort of dressed like Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band making this loud noise with these great rhythms. So, they’re just an incredibly fun group. The marching band is such a part of Hoosier culture with the Big Ten conference here, but they’re opening it up to a worldly repertoire.
A lot of these bands have deep connections with Bloomington. It really speaks to the importance of the music school there. Salaam [another TEDxIndianapolis performer] is an Iraqi music ensemble based in Bloomington. They’ve gotten international recognition for their recordings, and they’re one of the few Iraqi music ensembles working in the United States. The group is led by Dena El Saffar, who is an extraordinary musician. She has toured with an icon of African music named Youssou N’Dour from Senegal. His biggest exposure in the United States or Europe was “In Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel. He was the African voice on that tune … So she is somebody who has worked at this very high level, and has received lots of important recognition outside of Indiana, but her work doesn’t receive the recognition it deserves here because it’s such a foreign thing to people. That’s why I’m so grateful for the opportunity to present this music to a wider audience here.
SBW: How do you think music helps to further the other conversations that will be going on at TEDxIndianapolis?
KL: Music just touches people in a very different way. It certainly can stimulate you intellectually, but there’s also this emotional and visceral element to it. It reaches you in places that are beyond words and beyond concrete ideas. It also provides a break of sorts from all of the heavier presentations that people will be seeing … It just switches up the mood for a few minutes and gets everybody recharged.
SBW: Can you tell us a little about the after-party event featuring Osekre?
KL: I’m really excited about the after-party, because it’s free. Not to diminish anything that TEDx is doing, but the ticket price for TEDx can be off-putting for a lot of people. A lot of my friends are frustrated, because they don’t get to go and see all this great music, but the after party is free. So, we’re inviting everybody to come and get a sense of the music that we’re going to be presenting that day.
Osekre is much like Sweet Poison Victim — they’re a rock band led by a gentleman who grew up in Ghana. They mix ska and some elements of punk rock with the kind of traditional African sounds that people might’ve heard Sweet Poison play. I had been talking with the leader of the group, Ishmael, for a while about bringing them here. They’re based out of New York, and it just worked out that they were going to be around town at the time of TEDx, so we asked them to play the after-party.
Osekre.
SBW: What keeps you in Indy as opposed to working in a city that might have a larger audience for the type of music that you’re interested in?
KL: When you take on these thoughts and immerse yourself in the struggle for social advancement in the arts — or whatever field you pursue — it can get a little bit depressing. Sometimes I feel like I’m banging my head against the wall here, but the reason I stay is because I think it’s important to make this progress here. I want to be a part of this immigrant community and their struggle to make their place here. I want to be a part of that. It’s very fulfilling to be a part of that.
My friend Artur [Silva], who’s my partner in this organization we created called Cultural Cannibals, he’s a visual artist. He just left to pursue an MFA at Cal Arts near Los Angeles in California. I went out there to get him settled when he made the move, and I was like, “Oh my God, I would love to be here on the ocean and do what I do in this beautiful environment.” There would be so much of an audience for [my work], but I really don’t think I would have the same fulfillment there that I would here. I think we need more people in this fight here. I’m very grateful to have been given opportunities to express myself here. I think it’s important to make the points I’m making and be a part of this community that’s trying to carve out a space for themselves … I don’t want to paint the picture that people here are close-minded. The opportunities that I’ve been given here are indisputable proof that people here agree with the essence of my argument that immigrant cultures deserve more respect and greater rights.
SBW: Is Cultural Cannibals on hold while Artur attends grad school?
KL: That’s how I see myself. I’m not even a human being. I’m a cultural cannibal. That will never end, until they bury me. So, that’s definitely still going but it’s a little quieter than it has been in the past. Artur and I are preparing for a big mural project here in the city that will be a visual representation of the musical projects that we’ve done in the past. Right now, it looks quiet from the outside, but we’re getting ready to explode across the city when this project comes to fruition.
Written by Rob Peoni
Jonathan McAfee’s last hurrah
Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on defunct, Central Indiana arts website Sky Blue Window on July 7, 2015. Some formatting and style changes were made since the original publication.
Jonathan McAfee made a big splash last summer with his What People Like About Me Is Indianapolis exhibit at Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library. The show featured 15 portraits of Indy’s most famous author. Half of the paintings sold during the exhibit’s opening reception, and the rest sold within a couple of months afterward.
“I had painted him a few times, and people would buy him. He’s got a great look to him. He looks like a cartoon,” McAfee says. “Indianapolis, in general, is just really all for Vonnegut. They just really like Kurt.”
The success of his Vonnegut exhibit — his first sold-out show — gave McAfee the confidence to quit his job in PR at Bohlsen Group. So in January he began to pursue painting full-time. He believes the work he’s producing now is the best of his career, as he focuses full attention on furthering his style and technique.
Photo by Matt Beuoy
“I’m taking way more time on my pieces,” he says. “I still paint pretty quickly, but I won’t say a painting is done now until I am 100 percent happy with it. Before, I would not wait until the last minute, but I’d book a lot of deadlines and have to get things done. I wouldn’t give it the same attention that I’m giving things now.”
On Friday, McAfee will debut 16 new paintings in a show at 3 Mass Gallery for Emerging Artists. The show will feature four portraits of local hip-hop musicians Oreo Jones, Sirius Blvck, John Stamps and Grey Granite. The idea came to McAfee as a cross-promotion of Chreece – a hip-hop festival in Fountain Square that Jones is organizing as a benefit for Indiana music archive and nonprofit Musical Family Tree.
“I had painted a bunch of different celebrities and icons over the years,” McAfee says. “I had grown pretty tired of doing that. I didn’t feel like I was getting to the spot where I was growing as an artist. I still enjoy painting people, and I had been interested in what these guys have been doing locally. I just feel like they have a really neat aesthetic going on. I like their style; I like their music.”
McAfee often listens to hip-hop music while painting in his home studio near Garfield Park. He prefers to paint along with music that has a strong backing beat. He says the music occasionally bleeds into the color choices in his work. “When I hear music, I see colors,” he says. “I don’t know if that’s influenced by the album art itself, but, typically, whatever I’m listening to I focus on those colors because of the album or maybe a music video associated with it.”
Beyond the appeal of McAfee’s new subject matter, Friday’s show is significant, because it will be his last solo exhibition as an Indianapolis resident. McAfee will move to Denver with his wife at the end of the summer. “I feel like I need a change,” he says. “I’ve grown complacent over the last several months to where I need to go somewhere and start fresh, make new contacts. It’s scary, because I don’t know anybody out there really.”
Photo by Matt Beuoy
McAfee and his wife chose Denver after falling in love with the city during a visit in March. His wife has a background in parks and recreation management, and the couple was looking for a city with more outdoor amenities. While visiting Denver, they stopped in a gallery at the suggestion of friends. McAfee introduced himself to the gallery’s curator, and told her he was a painter from Indianapolis who was considering a move. Much to his surprise, the girl enthusiastically confessed to being an Indy ex-pat. McAfee showed her a few postcards featuring some of his work, and that’s when things got really weird.
“I showed her the postcards and she looked at it for a second and she goes over to her computer and says, ‘Is this you?'” McAfee recalls. “I look at it, and it’s an image I painted — a portrait of the painter Basquiat. It was hanging at the restaurant Pure in Fountain Square. Her dad, who must still live here, snapped a photo of it, sent it to her and said ‘I think you might be interested in this guy.’ It was really kind of serendipitous, because this was the only gallery that I went into, and she kind of had heard of me in a sense.”
Though McAfee is scared and intimidated at the prospect of starting from scratch in a new city, he’s hoping the move forces him to kick his painting into high gear and work even harder. In the meantime, he is excited about sharing his latest work and celebrating some of Indy’s most talented, up-and-coming rappers. “Maybe I am painting some icons that are in the works right now,” he says. “Contemporary icons. I think they’re going on to do some pretty rad sh_t. Who knows, maybe I’m the first one to paint their portrait?”
Stop by 3 Mass Gallery on Friday (July 10th) at 6 p.m. for McAfee’s exhibit entitled Peace-key Whees-key. The event is free and open to all ages. Or find out more info via Facebook. For more info on Chreece, follow along with updates from the Aug. 29 festival via Facebook and Twitter.
Written by Rob Peoni
Thought on Tracks 